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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27621184">The King &amp; the Tenebraen</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ceffyl_Dwr/pseuds/Ceffyl_Dwr'>Ceffyl_Dwr</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Final Fantasy XV</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>AU Ending kinda, Best not to read until finishing the game, F/M, I have ideas about how I wanted this game to end, King's Knight is written how???, SPOILERS kinda for the end?, So much phone use</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 16:15:32</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,136</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27621184</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ceffyl_Dwr/pseuds/Ceffyl_Dwr</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Noctis and his new girlfriend awkwardly enjoy life.</p><p>Or</p><p>Noctis can't handle is coffee.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Noctis Lucis Caelum/Reader</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>16</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The King &amp; the Tenebraen</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>SPOILERS - recommended that you finish the game first!</p><p> </p><p>As for warnings? There really aren't any, it's just Reader and King Noct hanging out on an awkward date.</p><p>Enjoy!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Noctis tried not to stare at his cell phone. He had just texted you,his new girlfriend, if you wanted to go on a date at the new coffee shop. He had asked you a year after the starscourge had been eliminated and he had been made King of Lucis. In truth he was a figurehead King with Ignis and Ravus jointly ruling as the Lucian representatives in a Eosian Peace Council alongside a lost Aldercapt heir and the Secretary of Altissa. This meant that King Noctis had a lot more time on his hands than most of the preceding Kings. He also wasn’t bound to have his life stolen by the Crystal. In face with his newfound time he was able to focus on his own pet project; properly destroying the Walls and bringing the borderlands up to speed technologically. </p><p>He also had some time leftover for his partner who had fought alongside him during the Scourge Years. He had grown quite close to you, despite your rocky start, your prickly attitude, and your attempt to be cool and capable. You ended up confiding in each other and filling in parts of each other’s lives you had never known about. You had grown up with the Tenebraen Royal Family and as such was quickly poisoned against the Lucis Caellum Line. Still his natural sincerity and passion and oddly enough awkwardness won you over.</p><p>By the end of the Scourge Years you had stayed with him in Insomnia, partially as a messenger for Ravus, when he wasn’t attending the Eosian Peace Council and partially because you would miss Noctis. It had just been a couple of weeks ago that he had gathered up the courage to confess his feelings towards you. Gladio had also threatened to crack his head open if he didn’t stop pining.</p><p>(Do u wanna go on a date at the new coffee place?) </p><p>You had been idly scrolling through your phone in your apartment, enjoying some downtime and nearly nodding off on the couch, when you saw the notification pop up on the screen. You almost closed it immediately, but when you saw who it was from you changed your mind. Reading over it caused you to grin, even as you chastised yourself for acting too smitten. You were still getting used to peacetime, and even more so your new relationship, and you were finding even little things were exciting. After a few seconds of mulling over exactly what to say, you typed out your response and waited for the reply.</p><p>(Sure, sounds good, when?)</p><p>Noctis nearly flung his phone across the room in his haste to whip it out when he felt the vibration. However years of phone use had given him terrifyingly specific reflexes and so he simply whipped out his phone really fast. His eyes blazed through your short text and he immediately began to type out a response before casually shoving it back into his pocket and leaning back against the throne.</p><p>(3?)</p><p>You hadn’t put your phone away, supposedly because of the article you were reading, although you spent more of the time staring at the notifications than the text. You were rewarded when he responded quickly. Glancing at the time, you mentally tried to calculate how long it would take you to get ready and get there, and decided it would probably be fine. With a nod to no one in particular, your fingers went to the phone screen and you typed out a short response.</p><p>(Okay, see you then!)</p><p>Setting the phone down and standing up to go make yourself look presentable, you took about 3 steps before you realized something and rushed back to the phone.</p><p>(Wait, it’s this one right? Wouldn’t want to go to the wrong place lol)</p><p>You sent over a link to what you assumed was “the new coffee place”, hoping you were right, and went back to trying to get ready.</p><p>Lightning quick as usual, Noctis felt the vibration and was immediately scouring his notifications. He did a silly half smirk that he had been told several times was not the greatest look on him.</p><p>(Yeah.)</p><p>Three was only a little while away so he idly played more Kings Knight, now under a new pseudonym as it might be a little odd for someone to realize they were raiding with the King of Lucis. After a few successful fights he got up, stretched, high fived Gladio and Prompto then shrugged off his royal reignment and slipped into his usual black t-shirt coat and baggy cargo capris.</p><p>He arrived at the coffee shop a couple minutes late, having gotten stopped by a cute cat along the way. Nonchalantly he looked around for you.</p><p>You had been outside, leaning against the wall of the cafe, since a few minutes before 3. You looked down at your phone, then went back to scanning the groups of people passing by. You sighed, hoping something hadn’t come up, when you saw him among the crowd. You raised your hand in greeting, trying to get his attention.</p><p>He waved back and walked over. “Hey.” He greeted. “Wanna get coffee?”</p><p>“Yeah, that’s what we planned on, right?” you shot back with a grin.</p><p>“Huh, oh yeah!” He fought back a blush. “Ignis likes this place, he said the…’midnight train blend’ is the best.”</p><p>“Really? If Ignis says it’s good, that’s some high praise.” You said with a nod.</p><p>He ordered the Ignis approved blend and took the steaming cup of black coffee over to a table near the corner.<br/>
You ordered the same for yourself, enjoying the aroma as you went over to meet up with Noctis. “So, what do you think of it?”</p><p>He eyed the drink warily. “It’s too hot to drink.”</p><p>“Really?” You asked, raising your own cup to his lips. “Hm, it is pretty hot still, I guess...but it is good,” you said after taking a sip.</p><p>He sniffed his cup and tried not to make a face. “Strong, smells strong.” He looked over at you. “Done anything lately?”</p><p>You shook your head with a smile. “Nothing major, just mostly work. Lots of meetings. Can’t complain about that, means things are peaceful, but it takes up a lot of time, as I’m sure you know. Have you done anything interesting recently?” you asked, before lowering your voice, knowing he probably wouldn’t want his identity outright announced to the whole room. “You know, besides being king and all.” You took another sip and added, “Oh, and, it is strong. Do you not like strong coffee? I’m sure there’s milk or sugar around here if you need it.”</p><p>“No, I-I’m cool. It’s good, see?” He took a small sip and couldn’t stop his forehead from knitting together. “Yup, that’s definitely good coffee.” He swallowed loudly. “ Anyways yeah, lots of meetings. I mainly hear about them from Ignis and I have to sign some documents. Saw a lot of treaties, they’re trying to establish trade routes since all of the continents are separated by oceans.” Suddenly he remembered where he was. “I think. It was all technical and legal jargon. Hard to tell.” He absentmindedly took another sip and nearly spat it out. “Yup, very strong…”</p><p>“Really, if you don’t like it, there’s no shame in making it less intense,” You said, but you had a very smug grin on your face as you took another large drink from your coffee. “I do remember hearing about the work on the trade routes recently. I have to say, I’m glad not to be in charge of that, it sounds like there’s a lot of nuance.”</p><p>He watched you with a barely suppressed horrified expression as you took a big satisfied looking gulp. “Yeah, it’s very nuanced, lots of provisions. But the main plan is fairly simple, it does require everyone having shipping routes so each continent needs its own fleet...but that’s just an idea, nothing confirmed. Also, how on earth can you drink this stuff that fast?!” He hissed frustratedly.</p><p>“Easily? It’s delicious, you picked a good spot.” You replied, raising an eyebrow.</p><p>He pursed his lips in a pout. “Easy for you to say. This stuff tastes like...I guess good mud? Maybe?”</p><p>You licked your lips and looked at the cup of coffee. “Yeah, I guess ‘good mud’ isn’t entirely inaccurate...but it is pretty bitter, I’ll give you that. Really, a little bit of milk would probably make it taste better to you.”</p><p>He sighed. “Fine, I’ll try milk…” He pushed his cup towards you. “You know how this stuff works, can you do it?”</p><p>You sighed, giving him a playful exasperated look “Lazy. But fine, I’ll do it, wait here.” You grabbed his cup and headed over to the area for customizing drinks. You added a small amount of sugar, stirred it in, and poured some milk in until the color was more of a caramel brown. Bringing it back you placed it in front of him. “Hopefully this’ll be more to your tastes? If it’s not enough I can try to fix it,” you said hesitantly, watching for his reaction.</p><p>He took a tentative sip and relaxed. “Better. Still too bitter but better.” He took another sip. “Maybe I just need to drink it more.” He took another few sips. “You’re good at this.”</p><p>“Well, thanks, that’s nice of you, but since you still didn’t like it I don’t think that really counts as good,” you replied, busying yourself with your drink before it got cold.</p><p>“I think it’s getting better the more I drink it.” He said, drinking about half his coffee. “You doing anything besides meetings? Played any King’s Knight?”</p><p>“Oh! Yeah, actually, I wanted to show you,” you said excitedly, pulling your phone out of your pocket and unlocking the screen before holding it out towards him. “I’ve been playing when I have time and I’ve gotten quite a bit better, maybe I’ll be able to actually help out next time we play together.”</p><p>His eyes lit up and he looked at your phone, thumbing through your profile. “Damn you really have. We’re gonna raid tonight at 8PM. You wanna join? It’s mid level stuff but you look good enough to hack it with us.”</p><p>“Oh, uh, yeah!” you responded, surprised but pleased. “Er, I mean, as long as it’s okay with all you guys, I still have a long way to go to be at your level and I wouldn’t wanna mess it up or anything…” you trailed off, doubt creeping into your voice.</p><p>He handed your phone back to you. “You won’t mess up anything, it’ll be fun!” He took out his phone and sent you a raid invite. “You get Ravus to play yet?”</p><p>You took your phone and started laughing as you accepted the invite. “No, I showed it to him last time and he called it ‘foolish nonsense’, so I think that’s gonna be a hard sell.”</p><p>Noctis snorted. “ He just doesn’t get it. Eh, his loss.” He shrugged and drank more coffee. “I’ve been working on another distribution map for getting reliable internet to Duscae. Could you run the route to make sure there aren’t any obvious issues? Gladio is going to be going too. I’d go but...” He pointed in the direction of the crystal. “I’m kind of stuck here until Dino’s research hits a breakthrough.”</p><p>“Of course, I’d be happy to, glad to hear you’ve been making progress on that,” You said with a brief nod. You looked in the direction he had indicated, your eyes narrowing to a glare. “...I really hate that you’re stuck here maintaining that thing, you know,” you hissed.</p><p>He nodded. “Yeah, it hasn’t got a real purpose anymore. Specs said I’m more of a reassuring spare battery to activate the crystal if something goes south than a King at this point.” He chuckled. “He isn’t wrong, I can’t wait until we find something better. I miss seeing the Lucian borderlands. Talcott, Cindy, Sania, all of the diners…” He trailed off. “At least you and my crew stayed with me.”</p><p>You looked back at him and forced a grin. “Of course, who’d keep an eye on you otherwise? Someone has to make sure you don’t just take naps all the time,” you teased.</p><p>“Hey, naps are important for batteries. Otherwise I wouldn’t be at full charge.” He shot back with a smarmy half smirk.</p><p>You sighed dramatically. “Really? Well, sounds like you’re a pretty inefficient battery then. Whatever Dino has’ll be better than you at this point, I’m sure.”</p><p>He chuckled. “Ouch, are you gonna date whatever synthetic crystal Dino makes?”</p><p>“That depends on if it’s as charming and good-looking as you are, I guess,” you shot back, remaining smug but with the faintest hint of a blush on your face.</p><p>He blushed fiercely, barely able to look at you. “Uhm, thanks...you really fell hard for me huh? Can’t blame you, I’m a catch.”</p><p>“I, um, well!” You stuttered, his embarrassment causing yours to flare up in response. “I...I wouldn’t go that far, especially not when you say stuff like that.”</p><p>He laughed and finished his coffee. “Hey, there’s a buddy glaive movie playing and there’s like 4 hours to kill until 8. Wanna watch?”</p><p>You took one long breath to calm down before responding. “Yeah, that sounds good, thanks. Been a while since I last went to a theater.”</p><p>He stretched and checked out showtimes on his phone. “It really has been a while. It just got back up and running a couple months ago. We also built one in Lestallum and Hammerhead.” He sounded quite proud of himself. “ Next showing is 15 minutes and it’s a few blocks away. You good?”</p><p>“Yeah, works for me,” You said, checking that your cup was empty before throwing it in the trash can. “You know, things have been getting back to normal a lot quicker than I thought was possible. I’m impressed.”</p><p>He nodded, “I know right? I guess it really is all about infrastructure. Things were damaged or shut down but not entirely wrecked.” He threw away his empty cup and started to walk towards the movie theater. “I missed all this stuff.”</p><p>You fell in step beside him, looking at the city as you walked. “I’d imagine. It’s...a lot, I’m still getting used to it, honestly. Insomnia is really something else.”</p><p>He looked around and smiled, slightly sad. “Yeah, it’s a lot…” He fell silent for a few minutes. “Do you want to move in with me? The Citadel is...big.”</p><p>“W..what? Are you being serious?” You asked, eyes wide.</p><p>“Uhm, do you think it’s stupid?” He asked, feeling sheepish. “Yeah it’s stupid. You can ignore it.”</p><p>“No, no, not stupid, I was just surprised. I mean, I’m really happy you’d ask, honestly, I just...didn’t expect it?” You reassured.</p><p>“You are?!” He asked, astounded. “ Uh sure, come live with me in the Citadel. I’m not kidding it’s huge.”</p><p>You laughed nervously. “Trust me, I don’t doubt it is, but isn’t it...kind of officially for royalty? Wouldn’t it kind of be a big deal…?”</p><p>Noctis snorted. “So? I’m the only royalty left and I say it’s fine.” </p><p>“It really wouldn’t be a problem, wouldn’t look bad? I know you don’t like the spotlight, and I don’t either, but if you’re really sure it’s okay…” you said looking at him, nervous but hopeful.</p><p>“Not really. I’m there for the Crystal, no one is going to care as long as I’m safe.” He said with a smirk before looking up at the big theater front window. “Next showing is in 10 minutes. You...want popcorn or something?” </p><p>“Huh?” You asked, his question knocking you out of your thoughts and concerns. “No, I’m good, thanks though. If you want something go ahead.”</p><p>He shrugged, slapped down some gil, and grabbed a popcorn before handing it to you. “ You can have some if you want.”</p><p>“Thanks.” you said absentmindedly, taking the popcorn and staring intensely at it. You resisted the urge to eat some for a few seconds before giving in and tossing a few into your mouth.</p><p>He smiled as he watched you eat. The movie was decent, more funny and heartwarming than action based. Noctis liked it, he said he’d recommend it to Prompto.<br/>
“Hey, it’s almost 8. You want to raid together or you want to head home?” He asked.</p><p>You checked your phone briefly before replying. “Well, if you still want to, I’d like to raid. As long as it’s not too late or anything.”</p><p>“Yes, yes raid with us! Just come back with us. You want to move in anyways right?” He excitedly said before trying to curb his enthusiasm.</p><p>“Well then...yeah!” You replied, sounding shy but flashing him a big grin.</p><p>Noctis couldn’t help it and grabbed your hand before literally dragging you back to the Citadel where he found that after racing a few blocks he was absolutely exhausted. Gladio teased him about being out of shape before greeting you.</p><p>“She’s gonna raid with us in King’s Knight.” Noctis announced out of breath.</p><p>Gladio smiled. “Welcome to the team!” He all but shouted before patting you on the back. “Take a seat, Prompto will join us in a sec.”</p><p>“Sure, thanks for having me,” you responded with a nod, sitting down and taking out your phone, quietly going over what you’d need to do to keep up with them.</p><p>Prompto, Gladio and Noctis liked having a new teammate in King’s Knight.  You rounded out their team nicely. Gladio high-fived over having another DPS to wreck the bosses faster. It was much riskier as Ignis wasn’t present to act as mage and healer.</p><p>“You gonna raid with us again on Saturday?” Prompto inquired. “We could use your help again!” Gladio smacked him. “Uh that is, if you wanna. No biggie!”</p><p>You were very pleased with how well that had gone, and despite a little adrenaline still in your system you found yourself grinning. “I’d like to, that was fun.”</p><p>They celebrated over a round of drinks that Gladio had brought over. After chilling for a bit Gladio and Prompto left to go to their quarters.</p><p>“So...you wanna try spending the night?” Noctis asked.</p><p>“Well, it does seem like you have extra room here, so...sure?” You answered, looking away from him, face red.</p><p>He coughed to try to hide his smile. “There sure is. You can have the room next to mine.”</p><p>“That sounds great. Thank you, Noct. Really,” you said fondly.</p><p>He held your hand and opened his mouth stupidly for a few seconds. “Y-you’re...thanks. No thank you, It’s lonely and full of memories...having you here sounds...really nice.”</p>
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